in my opinion the key is in "who can run a lightning node/hub?" as long as it is anybody who wants (which is the case and now there is incentive to run a node) then i don't see any kind of centralization in this. you are still connecting to a peer to peer network and making a transaction on it. just like any other p2p network there may be peers by banks, government, shady people, normal people,... but the good thing that i understand about LN is that the relaying nodes don't know about the origin and destination of the transactions they receive, they just pass it along and know it doesn't belong to them.
You do have a point there, mate. Anyone could leave or join a Lightning node at will, in a decentralized fashion. However, there's a thing that might concern LN node operators which involves regulation. I've seen an article over the web which says that Lightning node operators could be classified as Money Transmitters which fits on FINCEN's regulatory presence.
The article can be seen here: https://medium.com/@curt0/lightning-network-will-likely-fail-due-to-several-possible-reasons-336c6c47f049
If that happens, then only banks and registered institutions as money transmitters within the FINCEN would be able to operate LN nodes. As such, it could make such protocol centralized rather than decentralized. I know that relaying nodes won't be able to know the origin of transactions (which does not abide by KYC or AML regulations) but FINCEN could easily classify LN nodes as money transmitters, the same way the SEC classified ICOs as securities.
Therefore, anything could happen once the Lightning Network becomes used at a wide scale in the mainstream world. Just my thoughts
Are you trying to make up something to spread FUD? Did you bother to take some time to read and understand how LN works?
But please explain. How did you come to the conclusion that "only those with a lot of wealth and power would be able to participate in the Lightning Network". Let's see if you yourself understood what you have posted.
But please explain. How did you come to the conclusion that "only those with a lot of wealth and power would be able to participate in the Lightning Network". Let's see if you yourself understood what you have posted.
I'm not trying to spread FUD here but just saying what I believe that it would happen in the future. As more channels are opened simultaneously, fees on the main network could rise up to a point where only wealthy people could open them. As such, Bitcoin would also need to increase its blocksize to prevent fees from rising after many requests for opening channels (as a transaction would be made on the main chain to open a channel).
At least, that's how I see it, although I could be wrong. If fees stay at the minimum on the main chain, then there's no doubt that the anyone would be able to open channels within the Lightning Network at will.
